Walker investigation shows parts of 'In Cold Blood' don't add up

Records and witness accounts collected by investigators show several key parts of Truman Capote's book and the killers' alibi don't match

By SHANNON McFARLAND

Local detectives preparing a case to exhume the bodies of two murderers who were famously profiled in “In Cold Blood,” are not convinced by author Truman Capote's claim that “every word is true.”

Although the “nonfiction novel” about the 1959 murder of the Clutter family by Richard Hickock and Perry Smith was widely acknowledged as remarkable, it was criticized from the beginning over Capote's claim of complete accuracy. Witnesses disputed several points in the book and critics noted that Capote got several simple facts wrong, like the buyer and price of Nancy Clutter's horse.

Documents from the Walker investigation show factual contradictions with the few pages Capote devoted to the killers' travels in Florida the week before Christmas 1959.

Those documents are the basis for the theory that the men hanged for murdering the Clutter family in Kansas may also be responsible for the Dec. 19, 1959, murders of Cliff Walker, his wife and their two small children in Osprey. Will DNA evidence from the bodies of Hickock and Smith finally close the decades-old cold case?

Kimberly McGath, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office detective investigating the Walker case, said even the most well-intentioned author puts a bias and spin into his or her work.

"I don't know if you can really take any of it as fact, except maybe for the items that are substantiated by the official records and the official reporting, McGath said.

“Or things that you could maybe not take as fact, but are consistent with the other findings in the case.”

The few pages Capote devoted to the Walker case focus on Hickock and Smith's alibi concerning the day the Walkers were murdered.

Since investigators now have some serious doubts about the fingerprints and polygraph results that supposedly cleared the duo in the Walker case, McGath said the alibi printed in the book is “like taking their word for it.”

Records and witness accounts collected by Kansas and Florida investigators show several key facts in the book and Hickock and Smith's alibi don't match up:

What 'In Cold Blood' said vs. what the facts say

The book: Hickock and Smith did not enter Florida before Friday, Dec. 18.

The facts: Investigators confirmed the two were in Pensacola two days before that, at a Salvation Army.

The book: Hickock and Smith arrived in Tallahassee and stayed at a hotel Saturday, the night of the Walker murders.

The facts: Investigators did not find any witnesses or records supporting their alibi for that night. Multiple witnesses and a receipt with Hickock's name and the date confirmed Hickock and Smith actually arrived in Tallahassee that Thursday.

The book: Hickock and Smith arrived in Miami five days before Christmas Day.

The facts: Miami deputies learned the two men checked into the Somerset Hotel in Miami hotel on Dec. 18, a full week before Christmas.

The book: While in Miami, Hickock worked for one day at the “ABC auto-service company.”

The facts: “Concerning the employment of subject Hickock at an ABC Auto Service on Fourth and Washington,” a Miami detective wrote that “no such place exists.”

The book: Hickock and Smith “for five days had been living at the Somerset.”

The facts: Hotel staff told Miami deputies the men did pay for five days, but then asked for a refund Saturday morning. Hotel staff refused the refund and did not see them again.

The book: Hickock and Smith were at the Somerset Hotel “at noon on Christmas Day.”

The facts: Hickock and Smith left Miami days before Christmas. By Christmas Eve, they were in Louisiana selling two dolls to a minister for $1.50 to buy gas.

The book: Hickock read about the Walker murders in the Miami Herald on Christmas Day.

The facts: “Nothing on a quadruple murder” in Osprey was found in that issue of the Miami Herald, including extra editions, according to a researcher at the Miami-Dade Public Library System.